Revision as of 05:20, 15 September 2014 editTechnophant (talk | contribs)Extended confirmed users, Pending changes reviewers, Rollbackers4,780 edits rev← Previous edit | Revision as of 05:23, 15 September 2014 edit undoTechnophant (talk | contribs)Extended confirmed users, Pending changes reviewers, Rollbackers4,780 editsm fixNext edit → | ||
Line 19: | Line 19: | ||
}} | }} | ||
'''''Tanzim Qaidat al-Jihad fi Bilad al-Rafidayn''''', also known as '''Al-Qaeda in Iraq''' ('''AQI'''), or '''al-Qaeda in Mesopotamia''' and later ] is an ]i ] militant organization said to have links to ]. It is a major combatant actor in the ]. It is mostly known for killing ] and non-Muslim civilians. | '''''Tanzim Qaidat al-Jihad fi Bilad al-Rafidayn''''', ({{lang|ar|تنظيم قاعدة الجهاد في بلاد الرافدين}}), also known as '''Al-Qaeda in Iraq''' ('''AQI'''), or '''al-Qaeda in Mesopotamia''' and later ] is an ]i ] militant organization said to have links to ]. It is a major combatant actor in the ]. It is mostly known for killing ] and non-Muslim civilians. | ||
The group was founded in 2003 as a reaction to the American-led ] and ], and first led by the ]ian militant ], who declared allegiance to ]'s al-Qaeda network in October 2004. It first operated under the name ''''']''''' ({{lang-ar|جماعة التوحيد والجهاد}}, "Group of ] and ]"); since 2004 its official name has been |
The group was founded in 2003 as a reaction to the American-led ] and ], and first led by the ]ian militant ], who declared allegiance to ]'s al-Qaeda network in October 2004. It first operated under the name ''''']''''' ({{lang-ar|جماعة التوحيد والجهاد}}, "Group of ] and ]"); since 2004 its official name has been ''Tanzim Qaidat al-Jihad fi Bilad al-Rafidayn'' ("Organization of Jihad's Base in ]").<ref>, '']'', ], 28 April 2006</ref> Foreign fighters from outside Iraq are widely thought to play a key role in its network.<ref name=ChristianScienceMonitor20040514>{{cite news| date=14 May 2004 | url=http://www.csmonitor.com/2004/0514/p03s01-usfp.html | author=Peter Grier, Faye Bowers | publisher=] | title=Iraq's bin Laden? Zarqawi's rise | accessdate=13 July 2007| archiveurl= http://web.archive.org/web/20070608022329/http://www.csmonitor.com/2004/0514/p03s01-usfp.html| archivedate= 8 June 2007 <!--DASHBot-->| deadurl= no}}</ref> | ||
==Involvement in Iraqi Insurgency== | ==Involvement in Iraqi Insurgency== |
Revision as of 05:23, 15 September 2014
This article may be in need of reorganization to comply with Misplaced Pages's layout guidelines. Please help by editing the article to make improvements to the overall structure. (September 2014) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
This article or section is in a state of significant expansion or restructuring. You are welcome to assist in its construction by editing it as well. If this article or section has not been edited in several days, please remove this template. If you are the editor who added this template and you are actively editing, please be sure to replace this template with {{in use}} during the active editing session. Click on the link for template parameters to use.
This article was last edited by Technophant (talk | contribs) 10 years ago. (Update timer) |
Tanzim Qaidat al-Jihad fi Bilad al-Rafidayn (Organization of Jihad's Base in Mesopotamia) | |
---|---|
One of the flags used by AQI in their beheading videos. Variants had the circle and the shahada in white text. | |
Leaders | Abu Musab al-Zarqawi |
Dates of operation | 2004-2006 |
Headquarters | Fallujah |
Active regions | Iraq |
Opponents | Multinational force in Iraq, Iraq (Iraqi security forces, Kurdish and Shia militias), Jordan, United Nations |
Battles and wars | Iraqi insurgency |
Tanzim Qaidat al-Jihad fi Bilad al-Rafidayn, (تنظيم قاعدة الجهاد في بلاد الرافدين), also known as Al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI), or al-Qaeda in Mesopotamia and later Islamic State of Iraq is an Iraqi Salafi jihadi militant organization said to have links to al-Qaeda. It is a major combatant actor in the Iraqi insurgency. It is mostly known for killing Shia and non-Muslim civilians.
The group was founded in 2003 as a reaction to the American-led invasion and occupation of Iraq, and first led by the Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who declared allegiance to Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network in October 2004. It first operated under the name Jama'at al-Tawhid wal-Jihad (Template:Lang-ar, "Group of Monotheism and Jihad"); since 2004 its official name has been Tanzim Qaidat al-Jihad fi Bilad al-Rafidayn ("Organization of Jihad's Base in Mesopotamia"). Foreign fighters from outside Iraq are widely thought to play a key role in its network.
Involvement in Iraqi Insurgency
Jama'at al-Tawhid wal-Jihad officially pledged allegiance to Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network in a letter in October 2004 and changed its official name to Tanzim Qaidat al-Jihad fi Bilad al-Rafidayn (تنظيم قاعدة الجهاد في بلاد الرافدين, "Organization of Jihad's Base in Mesopotamia"). That same month, the group, now popularly referred to as Al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI), kidnapped and killed Japanese citizen Shosei Koda. In November, al-Zarqawi's network was the main target of the US Operation Phantom Fury in Fallujah, but its leadership managed to escape the American siege and subsequent storming of the city. In December, in two of its many sectarian attacks, AQI bombed a Shia funeral procession in Najaf and the main bus station in nearby Karbala, killing at least 60 people in those two holy cities of Shia Islam. The group also reportedly took responsibility for the 30 September 2004 Baghdad bombing which killed 41 people, mostly children.
In 2005, AQI largely focused on executing high-profile and coordinated suicide attacks, claiming responsibility for numerous attacks which were primarily aimed at Iraqi administrators. The group launched attacks on voters during the Iraqi legislative election in January, a combined suicide and conventional attack on the Abu Ghraib prison in April, and coordinated suicide attacks outside the Sheraton Ishtar and Palestine Hotel in Baghdad in October. In July, AQI claimed responsibility for the kidnapping and execution of Ihab Al-Sherif, Egypt's envoy to Iraq. Also in July, a three-day series of suicide attacks, including the Musayyib marketplace bombing, left at least 150 people dead. Al-Zarqawi claimed responsibility for a single-day series of more than a dozen bombings in Baghdad in September, including a bomb attack on 14 September which killed about 160 people, most of whom were unemployed Shia workers. They claimed responsibility for a series of mosque bombings in the same month in the city of Khanaqin, which killed at least 74 people.
The attacks blamed on or claimed by AQI continued to increase in 2006 (see also the list of major resistance attacks in Iraq). In one of the incidents, two US soldiers—Thomas Lowell Tucker and Kristian Menchaca—were captured, tortured and beheaded by the ISI. In another, four Russian embassy officials were abducted and subsequently killed. Iraq's al-Qaeda and its umbrella groups were blamed for multiple attacks targeting the country's Shia population, some of which AQI claimed responsibility for. The US claimed without verification that the group was at least one of the forces behind the wave of chlorine bombings in Iraq, which affected hundreds of people, albeit with few fatalities, after a series of crude chemical warfare attacks between late 2006 and mid-2007. During 2006, several key members of AQI were killed or captured by American and allied forces. This included al-Zarqawi himself, killed on 7 June 2006, his spiritual adviser Sheik Abd-Al-Rahman, and the alleged "number two" deputy leader, Hamid Juma Faris Jouri al-Saeedi. The group's leadership was then assumed by a man called Abu Hamza al-Muhajir, who in reality was the Egyptian militant Abu Ayyub al-Masri.
Inciting sectarian violence
Attacks against militiamen often targeted the Iraqi Shia majority in an attempt to incite sectarian violence. Al-Zarqawi purportedly declared an all-out war on Shias while claiming responsibility for the Shia mosque bombings. The same month, a letter allegedly written by al-Zawahiri—later rejected as a "fake" by the AQI—appeared to question the insurgents' tactic of indiscriminately attacking Shias in Iraq. In a video that appeared in December 2007, al-Zawahiri defended the AQI, but distanced himself from the crimes against civilians committed by "hypocrites and traitors" that he said existed among its ranks.
US and Iraqi officials accused the AQI of trying to slide Iraq into a full-scale civil war between Iraq's majority Shia and minority Sunni Arabs via an orchestrated campaign of militiamen massacres and a number of provocative attacks against high-profile religious targets. With attacks purportedly mounted by the AQI such as the Imam Ali Mosque bombing in 2003, the Day of Ashura bombings and Karbala and Najaf bombings in 2004, the first al-Askari Mosque bombing in Samarra in 2006, the deadly single-day series of bombings in November 2006 in which at least 215 people were killed in Baghdad's Shia district of Sadr City, and the second al-Askari bombing in 2007, the AQI provoked Shia militias to unleash a wave of retaliatory attacks. The result was a plague of death squad-style killings and a spiral into further sectarian violence, which escalated in 2006 and brought Iraq to the brink of violent anarchy in 2007. In 2008, sectarian bombings blamed on al-Qaeda killed at least 42 people at the Imam Husayn Shrine in Karbala in March and at least 51 people at a bus stop in Baghdad in June.
Operations outside Iraq and other activities
On 3 December 2004, AQI attempted to blow up an Iraqi–Jordanian border crossing, but failed to do so. In 2006, a Jordanian court sentenced to death al-Zarqawi in absentia and two of his associates for their involvement in the plot. AQI increased its presence outside Iraq by claiming credit for three attacks in 2005. In the most deadly of these attacks, suicide bombs killed 60 people in Amman, Jordan on 9 November 2005. They claimed responsibility for the rocket attacks that narrowly missed the USS Kearsarge and USS Ashland in Jordan, which also targeted the city of Eilat in Israel, and for the firing of several rockets into Israel from Lebanon in December 2005.
The Lebanese-Palestinian militant group Fatah al-Islam, which was defeated by Lebanese government forces during the 2007 Lebanon conflict, was linked to AQI and led by al-Zarqawi's former companion who had fought alongside him in Iraq. The group may have been linked to the little-known group called "Tawhid and Jihad in Syria", and may have influenced the Palestinian resistance group in Gaza called "Tawhid and Jihad Brigades", better known as the Army of Islam.
American officials believed that Al-Qaeda in Iraq had conducted bomb attacks against Syrian government forces. Al-Nusra Front, another al-Qaeda-inspired group, claimed responsibility for attacks inside Syria, and Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari said that Al-Qaeda in Iraq members were going to Syria, where the militants had previously received support and weapons.
Goals and umbrella organizations
See also: Mujahideen Shura Council (Iraq)In a letter to Ayman al-Zawahiri in July 2005, al-Zarqawi outlined a four-stage plan to expand the Iraq War, which included expelling US forces from Iraq, establishing an Islamic authority—a caliphate—spreading the conflict to Iraq's secular neighbors, and engaging in the Arab–Israeli conflict. The affiliated groups were linked to regional attacks outside Iraq which were consistent with their stated plan, one example being the 2005 Sharm al-Sheikh bombings in Egypt, which killed 88 people, many of them foreign tourists.
In January 2006, Al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI)—the name by which Tanzim Qaidat al-Jihad fi Bilad al-Rafidayn was more commonly known—created an umbrella organization called the Mujahideen Shura Council (MSC), in an attempt to unify Sunni insurgents in Iraq. Its efforts to recruit Iraqi Sunni nationalists and secular groups were undermined by the violent tactics it used against civilians and its extreme Islamic fundamentalist doctrine. Because of these impediments, the attempt was largely unsuccessful.
On 13 October 2006, the MSC declared the establishment of an Islamic State of Iraq (ISI), comprising Iraq's six mostly Sunni Arab governorates, with Abu Omar al-Baghdadi being announced as the self-proclaimed state's Emir.Abu Ayyub al-Masri, who had been the leader of the MSC, was given the title of Minister of War within the ISI's ten-member cabinet. Following the announcement, scores of gunmen took part in military parades in Ramadi and other Anbar towns to celebrate.
According to a study compiled by US intelligence agencies in early 2007, the ISI planned to seize power in the central and western areas of the country and turn it into a Sunni Islamic state.
Al-Qaeda | |||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Leadership |
| ||||||
Former leadership |
| ||||||
Timeline of attacks |
| ||||||
Wars |
| ||||||
Affiliates |
| ||||||
Charity organizations | |||||||
Media | |||||||
Video and audio | |||||||
Related | |||||||
Category:Al-Qaeda |
Al-Qaeda | |||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Leadership |
| ||||||
Former leadership |
| ||||||
Timeline of attacks |
| ||||||
Wars |
| ||||||
Affiliates |
| ||||||
Charity organizations | |||||||
Media | |||||||
Video and audio | |||||||
Related | |||||||
Category:Al-Qaeda |
Islamism | |||||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| |||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||
|
External links
- Al-Qaeda in Iraq, Al Jazeera English video from 20 May 2007
References
- Middle East and North Africa Overview, Country Reports on Terrorism, U.S. State Department, 28 April 2006
- Peter Grier, Faye Bowers (14 May 2004). "Iraq's bin Laden? Zarqawi's rise". Christian Science Monitor. Archived from the original on 8 June 2007. Retrieved 13 July 2007.
{{cite news}}
: Unknown parameter|deadurl=
ignored (|url-status=
suggested) (help) - Pool, Jeffrey (16 December 2004). "Zarqawi's Pledge of Allegiance to Al-Qaeda: From Mu'Asker Al-Battar, Issue 21". Terrorism Monitor. 2 (24): The Jamestown Foundation. Archived from the original on 30 September 2007. Retrieved 30 July 2014.
- "Zarqawi pledges allegiance to Osama". Dawn. Agence France-Presse. 18 October 2004. Archived from the original on 29 December 2007. Retrieved 13 July 2007.
- "Al-Zarqawi group vows allegiance to bin Laden". NBC News. Associated Press. 18 October 2004. Retrieved 13 July 2007.
- "Fast Facts: Abu Musab al-Zarqawi". Fox News Channel. Associated Press. 8 June 2006. Retrieved 25 July 2014.
- ^ "Country Reports on Terrorism". United States Department of State. 28 April 2006. Archived from the original on 11 March 2007. Retrieved 25 July 2014.
- "Al-Qaeda claims to have killed Egyptian envoy". The New York Times. 7 July 2005.
- Caroll, Rory; Borger, Julian (8 July 2005). "Egyptian envoy to Iraq killed, says al-Qaida". The Guardian. London.
- Howard, Michael (18 July 2005). "Three days of suicide bombs leave 150 dead". The Guardian. London.
- ^ "Another wave of bombings hit Iraq". International Herald Tribune. 15 September 2005. Archived from the original on 28 October 2007.
- ^ Tavernise, Sabrina (17 September 2005). "20 die as insurgents in Iraq target Shiites". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 27 January 2008.
- ^ "Al-Qaida in Iraq (AQI)". Dudley Knox Library. Naval Postgraduate School. Archived from the original on 1 April 2007. Retrieved 14 July 2014.
{{cite web}}
: Italic or bold markup not allowed in:|website=
(help) - "U.S. says Iraq chlorine bomb factory was al Qaeda's". Reuters. 24 February 2007.
- "Al-Qaeda in Iraq names new head". BBC News. 12 June 2006.
- Tran, Mark (1 May 2007). "Al-Qaida in Iraq leader believed dead". The Guardian.
- Atwan, Abdel Bari (20 March 2006). "Al Qaeda's hand in tipping Iraq toward civil war". The Christian Science Monitor.
- "Al-Qaeda disowns 'fake letter'". BBC News. 13 October 2005.
- "British 'fleeing' claims al-Qaeda". Adnkronos. 17 December 2007. Retrieved 20 April 2012.
- "Al Qaeda leader in Iraq 'killed by insurgents'". ABC News. 1 May 2007.
- ^ DeYoung, Karen; Pincus, Walter (18 March 2007). "Al-Qaeda in Iraq May Not Be Threat Here". The Washington Times.
- Aloul, Sahar (19 December 2005). "Zarqawi handed second death penalty in Jordan". The Inquirer. Agence France-Presse. Archived from the original on 29 October 2007.
- "Al Qaeda claims responsibility for Amman blasts". The New York Times. 10 November 2005.
- "Fatah Islam: Obscure group emerges as Lebanon's newest security threat". International Herald Tribune. Associated Press. 20 May 2007. Archived from the original on 25 May 2007.
- "Al-Qaida inspired militant group calls on Syrians to kill country's president". International Herald Tribune. Associated Press. 28 May 2007. Retrieved 6 August 2007.
- "Palestine: Reporter is dead, claims terror group". The Straits Times. 17 April 2007. Archived from the original on 15 July 2010. Retrieved 6 August 2014.
- Jonathan S. Landay (10 February 2012). "US officials: Al Qaida behind Syria bombings". McClatchy News. Retrieved 20 April 2012.
- Jonathan S. Landay (16 February 2012). "Top US intelligence officials confirm al Qaida role in Syria". McClatchy News. Retrieved 20 April 2012.
- "Al-Qaeda probably responsible Syrian suicide bombings, US spy chief claims". The Daily Telegraph. 17 February 2012.
- Karam, Zeina (5 July 2012). "Iraq warns al-Qaida flowing into Syria". Associated Press. Retrieved 6 August 2014.
- Muir, Jim (11 June 2007). "US pits Iraqi Sunnis against al-Qaeda". BBC News.
- "The Rump Islamic Emirate of Iraq". The Long War Journal. 16 October 2006. Retrieved 2 June 2014.
- "Islamic State of Iraq Announces Establishment of the Cabinet of its First Islamic Administration in Video Issued Through al-Furqan Foundation". SITE Institute. 19 April 2007. Archived from the original on 28 September 2007. Retrieved 20 July 2014.
- "Iraqi Insurgents Stage Defiant Parades". The Washington Post. 20 October 2006. Retrieved 5 September 2014.
- "Gunmen in Iraq's Ramadi announce Sunni emirate". Reuters. 18 October 2006. Retrieved 5 September 2014.
- Mahnaimi, Uzi (13 May 2007). "Al-Qaeda planning militant Islamic state within Iraq". The Sunday Times. London. Archived from the original on 24 May 2011.
- 2004 establishments in Iraq
- Al-Qaeda
- Al-Qaeda activities in Iraq
- Iraqi insurgency
- Jihadist organizations
- War crimes committed by Islamist militant groups
- Islam in Iraq
- Islamist groups
- Organisations based in Iraq
- Terrorism in Iraq
- Organizations designated as terrorist by the United States government
- European Union designated terrorist organizations
- Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant